'Sherlock Holmes' Spawns Competing 'Treasure Island' Films

Here's a word of advice to studios thinking of making their own hip adaptation of a literary classic: don't bother. Why not? Because producer Lionel Wigram is just going to come along and develop (or is already developing) a competing project, which will likely hit theaters before your version. And it's fair enough, given that you're just trying to emulate the success he had with Sherlock Holmes. Already he's dueling Summit Entertainment over which Three Musketeers film (his has Doug Liman directing, theirs has Paul W.S. Anderson) will be the first -- and therefore the only necessary -- to go before audiences. Now, Wigram has also thrown his hat into the ring for a Treasure Islandmovie challenge, according to Pajiba.

This latest contest seems to have begun back in February with the announcement of a UK production based on the Robert Louis Stevenson pirate swashbuckler. And strangely enough, rather than referencing the Pirates of the Caribbeanmovies, which pretty much began this whole new interest in period pieces with "hip" characters, this project was said to be inspired by the Holmes angle. But you can't just be a wannabe and not face the Wigram, apparently. The producer has a finished script at Warner Bros. from little-known actor/filmmaker Michael Gilio and had initially been looking to Paul Greengrass to direct (he's doing Fantastic Voyage instead). As long as the studio doesn't need to roll the screenplay over and over with rewrites, it seems Wigram's movie could easily start filming before the other Treasure, which is currently being written by Niall Johnson (White Noise).

What do you think or want the next "hip" literary adaptation competition to be? My pick: The Prince and the Pauper.